We are walking through the sheer labyrinth of the souks of Marrakech, visibly relieved that our tour manager Chris and our local guide Abdu are bookending us. Amidst this bazaar of spice stalls, tagine produce outlets, jewellery emporiums and shoe sellers (the babouche slipper is a common gift to take home), we are proudly informed that a map of the souks simply doesn’t exist, as it would never be accurate. Marrakech is a city synonymous with hustle and bustle and our five agents plus Riviera customers joining us on Riviera Travel’s Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains Signature Tour are delighted to be part of the action.

Our tour starts with a stroll from the Grand Plaza Hotel, our home base for the days ahead, towards the Bahia Palace, where we are greeted by a courtyard of beautiful mosaic. This 19th century building is a popular historical monument on the Marrakech tourist trail, and arriving around 10am means we avoid the inevitable crowds that grow quickly. 

Exploring the souks 

Then, on to the souks. We are frequently invited into the boutiques and stalls with a kind, often cheeky smile and a gentle wave of hand by many vendors. Far from the stereotypical view that entering the souks means you are hassled at every turn, a walk through the narrow streets is an eye-opening but more relaxed experience, perhaps a benefit of being a part of a 21-strong group. The average group size for this Riviera Travel Signature tour is 22, but you are still able, as we discover, to explore independently at many moments throughout the trip.

Our last stop in the souks is the Bloty apothecary, where we are treated to a classroom-style lecture of all the spices and delicacies Morocco has to offer. Would-be cooks learned about harissa and ras el hangout (literally, ‘King of Spices’), blends that populate many dishes, including tagines, alongside natural concoctions ranging from lotions for joint pain, prickly pear face cream that felt a treat on the skin, to star anise smelling salts said to aid breathing and reduce snoring. 

A fun end to this mini-lesson, selected by Riviera Travel as the apothecary is certified for the authenticity of its products, is an auction-style bidding whereby we are given the opportunity to buy these lotions and cooking blends to try our hand at home. Far from feeling pressured though, we are simply asked to raise our hands to request a packet or a vial to be placed in our quaint raffia shopping baskets.

Delicious dining 

The Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains Signature Tour is half-board, so most evenings guests eat at the Grand Plaza Hotel’s buffet, which day by day offers a mixture of meat and vegetarian options, salads and desserts. Most nights have a Moroccan theme, but there is one evening with a more Mediterranean feel to offer some variety. 

Food intolerances are well taken-care of, the dairy intolerance of one of our group is met with a reassuring smile by ‘Chef’ who carefully assesses the evening’s offer and is quick to prepare an alternative if there is any uncertainty. The hotel itself spans five floors, and those in pool-view rooms can enjoy a view of the courtyard-designed poolside, with its bar and plentiful seating areas. If you want to try something different from the buffet, a la carte Rossini is on hand, for Mediterranean fare.

One evening, as a feature of the Signature Tour, we are treated to an aperitif on Maison MK’s rooftop to view the sunset. One watch-out for the many bar terraces overlooking Marrakech is that the steps upwards can be both steep and slippery so those with mobility needs may need to be aware. 

After our drink, we are whisked by coach to Der Essalam, a restaurant with an ornate, feast-style setting where we are entertained by live music and dancing while enjoying a traditional chicken tagine with lemon and olives alongside a cous cous with seven vegetables. It is fair to say that on this tour, our agents have not gone hungry.

A Marrakech oasis

The next day, we are treated to a highlight of Marrakech, the Jardin Majorelle. This famous garden collection of French artist Jacques Majorelle began in the early 1920s and he spent more than 40 years adding to his botanical paradise. Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent rescued the gardens in the 1980s to restore it to the glorious oasis tourists and locals can enjoy alike. The popularity of this sight means our group is allocated a time slot to enter the gardens, once in, we spend a glorious hour immersing ourselves in flora and a surprising array of cacti.

Like many afternoons on this five-night tour, guests are afforded some leisure time to either relax in the hotel or wander the city to perhaps search for souk bargains, sample a tagine or soak up the Medina’s atmosphere; the old town is a roughly 40 minute walk from the Grand Plaza, which is situated in Marrakech’s ‘new town’ Gueliz. 

Gueliz, Marrakech’s first ‘modern’ district began life in the early 1910s, and the difference between the souks and traditions of Medina old town and this more metropolis area of the city are stark. Coffee shops, business premises and takeaways with a distinctly western feel (KFC, anyone?) are more in keeping with this part of the city, but the terracotta aesthetic is not lost here, and the many gardens and parks within Gueliz add a true charm.

Our agents note the convenience of the hotel’s location, right next door to the train station and a money exchange point, as the local currency (dirham) is hard to source back home. For those not wishing to walk back to the old town, taxis or indeed buses can take you there.

Spicy and sweet aromas

Our group (alongside some of our client companions) uses one of our free afternoons to opt into a Riviera Travel Personalise Your Experience paid-for extra of a cooking class. At our ‘cooking school’, Maison Arabe, the set-up is sophisticated. Each student has their own work station and cooking hobs, and a TV screen to view the head chef in a ‘follow-along’ class from her stage. The day’s lesson is a chicken tagine with caramelised apricots, and we are greeted with our ingredients of various spices, the required produce to create our gastronomic experience and the promise of the traditional Moroccan mint tea post-class to soak up the atmosphere. We are treated to a tea pouring demonstration – you start close to the decorated tea glasses, then elevate the ornate teapot so it looks like a cascade. After witnessing a few of these throughout the tour, our agents become pros, with Stewart Travel’s Greig Ewins becoming our expert server by the end of the trip.

The tagine is a surprisingly quick half an hour to cook once we are underway and our agents, despite some misgivings of their own skill at the start, quickly relax and enjoy the bubbling aromas of spice, and sugar, while our chef’s reassuring assistants offer up their help with a calming smile. Moroccan food is traditionally very sweet in taste and sugar is a common addition to most dishes. Our creations are no exception. We are invited to sit down at a banquet-style table as a group and each presented with our own tagines in a grand reveal. The consensus is that we are indeed would-be Moroccan cooking apprentices.

The next day is one many of the group are clearly excited about – the trip to Essaouira. The coach drive, some three hours, feels a bit daunting at the outset, but local guide Abdu is keen to keep our attention with various tales of both historical and modern Morocco, and there is a coffee and bathroom stop about halfway in at the efficient, welcoming Atlas Cafe.

On the way to Essaouira – where it is rumoured that Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze – we stop off at a women’s Argan Co-operative, where we witness firsthand the grinding and pasting of a Moroccan hallmark, the argan nut. Morocco is one of two places where argan trees can grow naturally, we are told that efforts to reproduce them in other parts of the world have failed, so it is a privilege to understand the many products that argan oil populates within Morocco. 

This self-confessed beauty product ‘nut’ was quite in awe of the potions for hair and body the co-operative has to offer and we were also invited to taste more culinary delights in the form of delicious argan-infused butter and honey, as well as the celebrated argan oil itself.

From city to coast

Arriving in Essaouira you are immediately struck by the contrast with Marrakech. It is largely white and blue in colour, a world away from Marrakech’s terracotta landscape, and, as I now discover, reminiscent of our tastefully calming decorated rooms at the Grand Plaza back in the city. Despite our visit being in late November, temperatures in Marrakech during the day tip to almost 30 degrees, and the terracotta landscaping is strategic, we are informed, to protect from the searing heat that locals experience during the summer months.

While Essaouira’s old town streets are lined with shops and restaurants, the footpaths are wider than the souks we have walked through on previous days and barely a scooter in sight. Our guides walk us through the square and into the streets, but we are given free rein to explore at will for the next few hours.

Seafood is a speciality in Essaouira, and we opt for Il Mare’s rooftop with a view over the coastline to sample shellfish-infused pasta or seabass on a bed of vegetables. After lunch, a gentle stroll through the streets sees us stop to admire various wares, including accessories and mosaic tableware. Altham Travel’s Helen Camm even tries her hand at haggling, the way to buy goods in Morocco’s souks and shops, with a confident smile and successfully knocks 50 MAD (around £4) off a purchase on behalf of this slightly more timid TTGer. 

After some shopping, we head to Essaouira’s beach to gaze at the sandy expanse and the azure-blue sea, which some of us enjoy dipping our toes in. The sea temperature is significantly warmer than the poolside of our Marrakech hotel, as those of us that dared to try our hand there, discovered.

The sprawling Atlas Mountains

Our final day of touring drives up into the Atlas Mountains, where we stop to take pictures of the snow topped terrains and the greenery. The drive to this bucket-list destination for a Morocco enthusiast is a clue to how the country wants to expand its welcome to tourists, with half-built luxury complexes and golf hotels restarting construction after the financial crash of the late 2000’s, perhaps partly in preparation for Morocco welcoming the world’s football fans in 2030 when it jointly hosts the Fifa World Cup with Spain and Portugal.

Once in the mountains we take in the scenery, and our last stop before lunch at the sprawling La Cle De Oliviers for a feast of grilled meats, vegetables – and french fries – is a viewing of a traditional Berber house, the communities that inhabit the Atlas and the heritage for many Moroccans. Here we see the communal feel of life in these communities, with lounges of almost window seats to accommodate large families, and friends, an open-stove kitchen and a viewpoint out to the mountains themselves. At this point, we are reminded of the devastation of 2023’s earthquake in the region, with some houses standing in the mountain yet to be repaired, largely owing to the cost of reconstruction.

On our last evening tour manager Chris invites us to a visit to Jemaa el-Fnaa to give us a window into evenings in Marrakech and we jump at the chance, wrapped up a bit more warmly as the day’s sunshine gives way to much chillier evening temperatures. 

The day’s snake charmers and henna tattooists are replaced with a swathe of colour and you are swept up into what feels like an open-house party, complete with what feels like hundreds of food stalls offering everything from Moroccan pastries, delicacies including madjoul dates to even Chinese stir fries. On the advice of our guide, many of our agents make a beeline for the fruit juice stands, where we watch as pomegranate after pomegranate is freshly squeezed in front of us, with an avid conversation about just how many of these jewel-coloured fruits go into one cup. We stopped counting at five.

Juices in hand, we wander the square (and some of the evening souks that are still open to try and catch that last eager haggler). It’s fair to say our window into this atmosphere, and the surroundings of its breathtaking landscape is likely to be in our memories long after we hit the tarmac back in the UK.